Rubber article such as baby pants



Jan. 26, 1937. A. N. SPANEL RUBBER ARTICLE sUcH AS BABY'PANIS Filed Dec11.

1955 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

15 ATTORNEY.

Jan. 26, 1937.-

A. N. SPANEL 2,068,997

RUBBER ARTICLE SUCH AS BABY PANTS Filed Dec. 11, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 242:5 ATTORNEY.

Patented Jan. 26, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,068,997 RUBBERARTICLE such as BABY PANTS Abraham N. Spanel, Rochester, N. Y.Application December ll, 1935, Serial No. 53,925

2 Claims. (Cl.128--288) This invention relates to thin rubber articlessuch as baby pants and-the like.

This application is a continuation in part of applicants copendingapplication, Serial No. 738,669, filed Aug. 6, 1934.

The main feature of the present invention relates to the provision of arubber article such as a pair of baby pants in which the margin of eachopening therein is suitably reinforced by an integral accumulation orridge of rubber on the inner surface of the article and adjacent to acut edge thereof. 4

Another feature of the invention relates to a reinforced waist openingwith a cut edge,in a rubber garment wherein certain portions of themargin of the garment at this opening are offset with respect to otherportions of said margin to facilitate the application of the garment tothe wearer.

A further feature of the invention relates to the arrangement of the legopenings in a pair of baby pants made of rubber in which said openingsare cut out from the body of the pants so that the margins of theseopenings tightly but comfortably conform to the legs of the infantwithout the need of an excessive amount of rubber.

These and other features of the invention will appear from the detaileddescription and claims when taken with the drawings in which Fig. 1

is a front elevation and Fig. 2 is a side elevationof one style of pantsaccording to the present invention, whife Fig. 3 is a cross sectionalview of the same taken substantially on the line 34 of Fig. 1;. Fig. 4is a front elevation and Fig. 5 is a side elevation of a modified typeof baby pants, while Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view thereof takensubstantially on the line 6-6 of Fig. 4, and Fig. 7 is a fragmentarysectional view of this modified type of pants taken substantially on theline 1-1 of Fig. 5; Fig. 8 is a front elevation of a form suitable formaking baby pants according to the present invention, a fragment of thepants made on this form being slightly displaced from the form toillustrate more clearly the type of reinforced margins at the openingson the inside surface of the pants; Fig. 9 is a front elevation and Fig.10 is a side elevation of a form on which the pants of Figs. 1, 2, and 3can be made; Fig. 11 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view thereof takensubstantially on the line IIH of Fig. 9; and Fig. 12 is a fragmentarydetail view in cross section taken substantially on the line IZ--l2 ofFig. 10; Fig. 13 is a front elevation and Fig. 14 is a side elevation ofa form on which the pants of Figs. 4 to 7 inclusive can be made and Fig.15 is a cross sectional view of this form taken substantially on theline l5l5 of Fig. 13.

Referring especially to Figs. 1, 2, and 3, the 5 numeral 5 generallydesignates a pair of rubber pants having a waist opening 6 and legopenings I and I. The margins of each of these openings is reinforced byribs 9, Ill, and ii of rubber located on the inside surface of the pantswhile 10 they are being worn. The ribs l0 and Hare preferably'thickenedcorrugations in the rubber, that is the thickness of the corrugation isgreater than the thickness of the adjacent layer of rubber. Thereinforcing ridge 9 terminates in a tom 15 or feather edge I! while theridges l0 and II terminate in cut edges I3 best shown in Fig. 3. It willbe noted that the openings 1 and 8 are reentrant with respect to thegeneral outline of the pants thereby avoiding an excess or superfluousamount of rubber about the legs of the infant while the pants are beingworn.

The modified rubber pants shown in Figs. 4 to 7 inclusive, generallydesignated it, are like-. wise provided with a waist opening it and re-2 entrant leg openings l1 and Iii. The waist opening I8 is reinforced bya thickened corrugation or what is substantially a convexo-concave ribI! (Fig. 6), on the inner surface of the pants as worn, the edge 20 ofthe material at this open- 3o ing being preferably a cut edge. It willbe noted especially in Figs. 5 and 6 that the rear edge of the garmentat the waist opening projects beyond the frontedge thereof to facilitatethe application of the pants to the wearer. The mar- 35 gins of the legopenings l1 and I8 are likewise reinforced by a thickened corrugation orconvexoconcave ridge 2| adjacent a cut edge 22. The front of the body ofthe article is provided with a plurality of ventilating openings 23herein'illus- 4 trated as symmetrically spaced pairs of openings,

. although the number and arrangement of these vided with legs, but theinvention includes baby so pants provided with legs of the characterindicated in Fig. 8. In this type of baby pants. the

- margins of the waistopening and the leg openings therein arerespectively provided with thickened ridges 27 and 28 which terminate intom 55 .edges 29 and 30, said ridges being all located on the samesurface of the pants.

In making the pants 26, a form 3| of the general shape of these pants isdipped by means of a support 32 into a bath of liquid rubber or anaqueous dispersion of rubber or the like. The form 3i has a raised panel32 with an abrupt edge 33 to define the waist opening in the pants, thepanel being joined to the body of the form at a junction 34 to define arecess. It will be noted that the body of the form merges with thisjunction by a curved surface 35. Similarly, each leg of the form isprovided with an end panel 36 having an abrupt edge 31, the panel beingjoined to the leg portion proper through a junction 38. The leg portionof the form merges with this junction by a curved surface 39. This formis dipped one or more times into the liquid rubber. During the dippingof the form the liquid rubber is deposited as a uniform layer over thesurface of the form proper but accumulates at the junction 34 and 38 toprovide the thickened reinforcing ridges 21 and 28 while the the abruptedges 33 and 31 of the panels, the liquid rubber flows away leaving aline of weakness in the deposited rubber layer. When the rubber layerhas been dried and/or cured, the excess rubber on the faces of thepanels is torn away at the lines of weakness developed in the layer atthe abrupt edges 33 and 31. Thereafter the pants are removed from theform.

The type of pants shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, can be conveniently madeon the form illustrated in Figs. 9, 10, 11, and 12. This form which hasthe general shape of the finished pants, is provided with asubstantially flat front surface 4| and with a concave rear surface 42whereby a certain amount of fullness is provided at the rear portion ofthe finished pants. The sides and bottom of the form are generallyrounded to avoid any abrupt edges while the top part of the formterminates in a substantially straight edge defined by a projecting flatplate 43 which joins the upper surface of the form at the junction 44.The plate 43 which has an abrupt edge 41, may be provided with anysuitable support 45 whereby the form proper may be manipulated duringthe clipping and drying operations. The edge of the lower portion of theform is provided with spaced flattened elliptical grooves 46 cut intothe edge of the form to define leg openings in the resulting pants. Thegrooves are preferably devoid of sharp edges.

In making rubber pants on this form, the form including the plate 43 isdipped by completely submerging the same into a bath of liquid rubbersuch as an aqueous dispersion of rubber. The dipping operation may berepeated several times until a layer of rubber of the desired thicknessis deposited on the form. It will be understood that during the dippingoperations the rubber will accumulate by surface tension in the recessadjacent the junction 44 while at the abrupt edge 41 of the plate 43 theliquid rubber will tend to flow away, thereby resulting in a line ofweakness in the deposited rubber layer. As a result of this line ofweakness, the excess portion of the layer on the plate 43 can be tornaway as far as the abrupt edge 41 when the rubber is dried. It will alsobe understood that during the dipping operations, the liquid rubber willaccumulate in the recesses 46 to develop ridges [0 having aconvexo-concave cross-section as best illustrated in Fig. 11. Theseridges define leg openings and after the rubber layer has been suitablydried and/or cured, the portion of the rubber within each ridge is cutaway as far as the dotted lines 49.

The rubber pants shown in Figs. 4, 5, 6, and '7 can best be made on theform illustrated in Figs. 13, 14, and 15. This last-mentioned form issimilar to the form disclosed in Figs. 9 to 12 inelusive, but differstherefrom in that the waist portion of the form is provided with adiiferent arrangement for defining a reinforced waist opening and thefront surface of the form is provided with pairs of flattened ellipticalrecesses cut into the face of the form to define ventilating openings23(see Fig. 4). The portions of this form which are identical with theportions of the form illustrated in Figs. 9 to 12 inclusive areidentified by the same reference characters and need not be furtherdescribed. The front surface of the upper portion of the form whichdefines the waist opening in the resulting pants is provided with ahorizontal groove 50 in one plane and the rear surface thereof isprovided with a horizontal groove 5| in a higher plane while these twogrooves at the edges of the form are joined by slanting grooves 52 whichmay be defined by an ogee curve. As herein illustrated the top of theform has an irregular surface 53, although this surface may be aslanting plane surface, without departing from the spirit of the presentinvention. The front face of the form is provided with spaced pairs offlattened elliptical grooves 54, the arrangement and spacing of thesegrooves being determined by the desired arrangement of the ventilatingopenings 23 (Fig. 4) in the resulting product.

In making pants on this form, the pants are deposited by associating theform with a bath of liquid rubber such as an aqueous dispersion ofrubber one or more times until a layer of the desired thickness isdeposited on the form. The rubber will accumulate as reinforcements inthe grooves 46 defining the leg openings and in the grooves 54 definingthe ventilating openings as well as in the groove defining the waistopening at the upper part of the form. It will be noted from Fig. 15that these reinforcements defining these several openings, are thickenedcorrugations in the rubber layer or in other words, ridges of generalconvexo-concave cross section. After this layer has been suitably driedand/or cured, a portion of the layer within each ridge 2| (Fig.

- 15) is cut away as far as the dotted lines 39 to form the legopenings. The portion of the layer within each ridge 24 is cut away asfar as the dotted lines 55 to provide the ventilating openings 23, whilethe excess portion of the layer above the dotted line 56 is cut away toprovide the waist opening in the article.

The remaining operations of preparing the article for market need not beset forth herein since they are well-known in the art.

Since the pants herein disclosed are made by dipping the forms such asshown in Figs. 8 to 15 inclusive into an aqueous dispersion of rubberand thereafter drying and vulcanizing the deposited rubber, it will beappreciated that these pants will have the same general shape as thegeneral contours of the form on which they are deposited, in otherwords, they will have a shape herein referred to as definitely fixed. orpermanently set in character.

The present disclosure is given merely by way of example and is not tobe taken in a limiting sense for there may be many variations andmodifications within the scope of the appended claims without departingfrom the spirit of the present invention.

What I claim is: 1. Relatively thin seamless deposited rubber pantshaving a waist opening and leg openings therein, said pants having adefinite normal shape permanently set in character, the margins of saidpants adjacent said openings being reinforced by ridges of rubberintegral with said pants, all of said ridges being located on the samesurface of said pants.

2. Thin seamless deposited rubber pants having a waist openingand legopenings therein, said pants having a definite normal shape permanentlyset in character, the margins of said pants adjacent said leg openingsbeing reinforced by ridges of rubber integral with said pants, all ofsaid ridges being located on the same surface of said pants.

ABRAHAM N. SPANEL.

